See You Next Summer!
by William Easley
Summary: It's time to say farewell to the Falls again as sixteen-year-old Dipper and Mabel look back to the summer of 2015-and ahead to the school year that lies between them and a return visit like a vast and dreary desert.


**See You Next Summer!**

 **(September 1, 2015)**

* * *

 **From the Journals of Dipper Pines:** (In his Vigenère Cipher #11) Tuesday, September 1: The last time I saw Wendy, she was wearing my pine-tree trucker's hat and plopping her trapper's hat on my head. "Call me every day," she said.

Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford had driven us over to the airport. They didn't stare, but they didn't look away, when Wendy and I kissed. Mabel made little "Mm-mm!" sounds, but nobody else in the crowd around us paid any attention.

Guess we've reached the public display of affection level. They called our flight, and Wendy handed me the traditional card. Then Mabel and I joined the queue of passengers for the flight down to Oakland.

"How are you feeling, Sis?" I asked her.

"Meh. So we're sixteen. No big deal—yet! But wait until I get my license, baby!"

"Yeah, remember not to try to hit ninety too quickly, OK?" Mabel does like to go fast.

We found our seats—Grunkle Stan didn't spring for first-class, but we had business-class, anyhow, on the side of the airplane with two seats per row instead of three. We stowed our carry-on—Grunkle Stan was shipping our trunks down because that was a lot cheaper than paying for luggage—and then Mabel and I settled back in our seats.

"What a summer, huh?" I asked Mabel.

"It wasn't all bad," she said. "I got to see Mermando again! And Brujo didn't kill us! And I got to eat Gnome jam! Woodstick was fun! With vampires! And lots of smooching with Teek!"

"And we had an epic party," I told her.

That was true. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year in Gravity Falls—a hundred and five. But we had the traditional lawn cook-out—Soos and I and Grunkle Stan and Teek moved all the picnic tables into the shade at the edge of the forest—and we had games, and nearly everybody in town turned up.

The Gnomes celebrated with us. Twelve of them formed up and arm-wrestled Manly Dan. They lost, of course, but it was all in good fun. And then they stole half the desserts when no one was looking, but we had so many that didn't matter. Tad Strange brought Sev'ral Timez over, and they and Multi-Bear harmonized on a few numbers. The Gremloblin, wearing dark glasses, did an incredible dance. He thought it was the Macarena. It was more like the Monster Mash, Grunkle Stan said. I'm not sure what that is.

Pacifica and her new boyfriend Daniel were there, and Grenda and her fiancé Marius came—he's a cool guy, even if he is a baron who ruthlessly exploits the workers of his country (not my words, but that's what Toby Determined said). Candy came, too, escorted by Pacifica's former boyfriend Adam, who seemed happy. He and Pacifica are on good terms, anyway.

We partied for a couple of hours and then somebody suggested the lake, so we all piled into cars and drove there. It's always cooler by the lake—just ninety-three!—and we splashed around and threw water balloons. I fleetingly wondered about those gel creatures in the cavern behind the Falls, but—well, they can't stand the dryness outside the cavern and they die almost instantly in sunlight, so I guess we don't have anything to worry about, really.

But there's sort of a gel Dipper and a gel Wendy in there, and I couldn't help wondering what those two might be doing. Something gelid, I guess.

Wendy, looking great in her red swimsuit, did a beautiful crawl stroke out to the float, and I followed, but I couldn't quite make it. When I started to flounder about ten feet away, she jumped back in and gave me a tow. "Seriously, dude?" she asked when we were up on the float. "You _gotta_ learn to swim better, man!"

"I'll try," I said. Funny, swimming gets me winded a lot quicker than sprinting does. A little later, Robbie and Tambry showed up at the lake—they'd been doing some recording and hadn't noticed the time, he said—and he brought with him copies of his band's very first CD. "Won't be seeing these around much longer," he said as he and Tambry autographed a couple for Mabel and me. "Vanishing technology, guys."

I felt really good yesterday, until evening, after the party, when we started packing.

Then it started to sink in that once again, Mabel and I had to leave the Falls for a school year down in Piedmont. We're juniors now. I hear there'll be a whole new set of challenges. For one thing, I'll be on the Varsity track team. The Varsity gets a whole lot more student support than JV does. I'll bet there'll be twenty students in the stands supporting us at every meet.

I can't help feeling a little grumpy because track doesn't have the glamor of football.

Anyway, two more years of high school and then we climb the ladder to the highest diving board and leap off into college.

In a way it seems like high school's been going on and on and on.

In another, the time has flashed by.

I know the days will just creep while I'm away from Wendy.

Whoops, gotta pause here. We're taking off, and I have to put the tray table up.

* * *

We're at thirty thousand feet, the pilot says, and we're diverting east to bypass some bad weather, so I'm writing again. I've got the window seat. Mabel has the barf bag. I'm staring out and looking sharp, and sure enough—

"Mabel!" I said. "Look—the Falls!"

I've never seen it from the air before, but you couldn't mistake it: the bluffs carved in that UFO shape, the huge domed hill that hides the biggest secret, the crashed alien ship, the slender silver ribbon of the Falls, even the lake, sapphire blue in the morning sun. I couldn't quite make out the Shack, but I knew where it must be.

"Blechh!" Mabel commented into the bag. Then she chuckled. "That was the last of it!" She craned her head to stare out the window. "Yeah, I see it! it looks like a toy! Great. Urp. I was wrong. Blerrgggh!"

At least she didn't splash me. She's got pretty good about handling barf bags.

The valley didn't stay in sight for long. I watched it until it vanished in haze and distance. Gravity Falls looked so small, so tiny, so incredibly fragile.

I have to try to hold it all in my mind and in my heart. Somehow that off-beat little town has helped to make me who I am, for good and for bad. It's given me a little confidence, a little courage, a little wisdom—not enough!—a little self-reliance, and love. Lots and lots and lots of love from my family and from the Ramirezes and from Wendy. Especially from Wendy.

I need the Falls.

But I have to go.

So long for now, Gravity Falls. I think Mabel and I have become a little part of you. I know you're a big part of us.

We couldn't ever let go of you. Nothing could make us do that—not Time Baby, not the Memory Eraser, not Bill Cipher, nothing and no one. My heart is anchored in Gravity Falls, and the Shack is at the center of my life. I don't just visit it.

I come back home to it.

Again—so long, but just for now.

This isn't "goodbye," Gravity Falls, it's "until we see you again." Until then, keep well, be happy, and stay weird.

We'll be back.

You'll be waiting.

 _We_ can't wait.

* * *

 _-Final entry in Dipper Pines's Journal 4._


End file.
